Deaths show need for immigration reform: Editorial

A man who survived a journey across the Mexican border in the back of a tractor-trailer, where 10 were found dead in Texas, says there was no water or fresh air. He described the trailer being "full." (July 24)
AP

San Antonio police officers investigate the scene where eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer loaded with at least 30 others outside a Walmart store in stifling summer heat in what police are calling a horrific human trafficking case in San Antonio. (Photo11: Eric Gay, AP)

The horrific death of at least 10 immigrants sneaking across Texas this weekend in the back of a tractor-trailer rig with no air-conditioning is a tragic reminder of the lengths people will go to in pursuit of a better life.

It's also a grim, cautionary tale about greedy predators who stand ready to capitalize on that greatest of all human suffering – that irrepressible yearning for a better life; in this case, a shot at the American dream.

It's small solace that the driver of that rig was arrested and charged Monday with illegally transporting the immigrants, nearly three dozen of whom were found in a Wal-Mart parking lot in San Antonio.

The question we all should ponder now is this: What can we do to stave off such tragedies, and to shut down sinister underground enterprises that exploit a vulnerable, yet steady stream of desperate souls?

Telling people to come into the country legally doesn't work. Those paths are few. And as the ringleaders of these human smuggling rackets well know, desperate people do desperate things.

That's why we find the rhetoric from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other immigration saber-rattlers so troubling. Building walls, mass arrests, deportations – they are sound bites that play to the get-tough crowd but do little to actually solve the problem. Yes, border security is important. But the lure of a better life will forever tempt those trapped in despair.

It's important for our leaders to be smart about immigration reform. And to look at the whole picture.

"These economic migrants are basically law-abiding people who are seeking work because their country of origin has not given them a chance to succeed," Dennis Nixon, the CEO of International Bancshares Corp. and International Bank of Commerce in Laredo, wrote in an op-ed column recently.

Nixon, who helped lead President Trump's campaign in Texas last year, recognizes that we can curb the incentive – and the risks – for those sneaking across the border illegally by providing a pathway to legal status. Harsh and unaccommodating immigration policies are impractical and inhumane.

CLOSE

About 100 people held a vigil in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday for the victims of an alleged immigrant smuggling operation. At least nine people found in a sweltering tractor-trailer died. Nearly 20 were rescued. The driver was arrested. (July 24)
AP

The flow of illegal immigrants into the United States has slowed in recent decades. The vast majority of those still coming through Mexico – many from Central America – are looking for work, not trouble. They are a pillar of our growing economy.

Turning our backs on those fleeing violence or hopeless situations, as we've seen with the refugee crisis in Europe, simply shifts the burden elsewhere.

Our immigration courts are clogged. Through October of last year, there were more than half a million immigration cases in the pipeline with a wait time of up to nearly three years. These are people trying to come here legally.

Unless Congress beefs up the number of immigration judges, that backlog could reach 1 million in five years, Nixon wrote.

That's not as it should be. The consequences are dire: More opportunities for human smugglers to prey on those looking for any way out; more people sneaking into the country and living in the shadows.

It's not the American way.

This editorial was written by the Dallas Morning News.

CLOSE

Professor David Shirk of the University of San Diego says the deaths of 10 immigrants who died after being trapped in a tractor-trailer shows that deaths could rise if the U.S. fails to reform its immigration system. (July 24)
AP